Vol. 1, No. 4, Dec. 2006

Pre-council meetings

Sunday, Jan. 21, at St. Andrew's, Seguin, for the Northeastern Convocation
Sunday, Jan. 28, at St. Philip's, Uvalde, for the Western Convocation
Monday, Jan. 29, at St. John's, McAllen, for the Valley Convocation
Tuesday, Jan. 30, at All Saints, Corpus Christi, for the Southern Convocation
Thursday, Feb. 1, at St. Peter's, Kerrville, for the Northern Convocation
Monday, Feb. 5, at St. David's, San Antonio, for the Central Convocation
Tuesday, Feb. 6, at Trinity, Victoria, for the Eastern Convocation

All meetings, except the Central Convocation (San Antonio), will begin with a light supper at 6:00 pm. The Central Convocation meeting will begin with coffee and a light dessert at 6:15 pm. All presentations will start at 6:45.

Give a Gift to the World

For donations of $10, $20, or more, members of your congregation can help women and children around the world this Christmas in honor of someone special to you. Honorees will receive a Christmas card -- the cards have been created by the children of St. George School, San Antonio -- telling of the gift.

The card will read:
Remembering the many ways you have blessed my life, a gift has been given in your honor to the World Mission Department of The Episcopal Diocese of West Texas. The gift will benefit women and children around the world who are hungry, homeless, endangered, or in need of educational or medical assistance.
May God bless you and yours this Christmas season and bring you joy in the coming New Year.

All gifts will be used for world mission ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas.

For a PDF gift donation form that you can print and distribute in your congregation, click here

Camping in the Cold

Registrations are now being accepted for three Mid-Winter Camp sessions.

Mid-Winter 1, Jan 12-14, for ages 8 1/2 -12

Mid-Winter 2, Jan 19-21, for ages 12-15

Mid-Winter 3, Jan 26-28, for ages 15-18.

All ages are as of Jan 1, 2007. Cost for each session is $110, which includes a CD and Canteen.

Mid-Winter camps are January weekend camp sessions designed and led by diocesan clergy with the assistance of volunteer camp counselors, leaders, and teachers from the church family. The weekends are filled with the favorite Camp Capers "stuff" -- group games, cabin activities, inspiring chapel time, music, canteen, and more. The Department of Youth and Young Adult Ministry is still accepting applications for volunteer session counselors for these camps; applicants must be 16 years or older by January 1, 2007. Anyone interested in additional information about Mid-Winters should call Jean Beere at the diocesan office at (888 or 210) 824-5387, or for an application or registration form, visit the Camp Capers website; www.campcapers.org, and select Forms at the top.

The Department of Youth and Young Adult Ministry is also accepting applications for summer 2007 camp staff. Volunteer session counselors for summer staff must be 16 years or older by June 1, 2007; full time, paid summer staff must have one year of college or be 20 years or older by June 1, 2007. Again, applications are available on the Camp Capers website.

Building Green

The average U.S. citizen spends approximately 90 percent of his time inside a building. According to the Rocky Mountain Institute, most of these buildings, as they are presently constructed, have an enormous negative environmental impact. As stewards of God's gifts, the Church community has a special opportunity and responsibility to be mindful of the impact of its buildings. With that in mind, the Environmental Stewardship Committee of the diocese has prepared a Green Building Primer for Church Buildings. Its purpose is to introduce the layman to some of the principles and concepts of Green Building, also known as Sustainable Building, and to provide a guide to resources for implementing those concepts. It is available on the diocesan website at http://www.episcopal-dwtx.org/envirosteward2/greenbuild.htm

Honored Moms

The list of women in whose names gifts were given on Mother's Day 2006 is now on the diocesan website. This year's gifts went to help children who have been neglected, abandoned, and orphaned and included sending Bible story comic books in the Farsi language for children in Iran and starting micro-enterprise bread bakeries in Southeast Mexico. The women of that region are often responsible for raising their children alone, since the men have "gone north" in search of work. The bread baking business has become a valuable source of income for these women.

Gifts also went for scholarships for two young persons: Rebecca Sharrow, who is preparing for missionary work in Columbia; and Juan Soto, a student at the Metropolitan State College of Denver.

Briefly

New Dean at ETSS
The Rev. Dr. Douglas Travis is the new dean and president of the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest (ETSS). Teacher, former theological school dean and parish priest, Dean-elect Travis will join the ETSS community on January 1, 2007. After working with Interim Dean Philip Turner through the upcoming spring semester, Travis will assume full duties as the seminary's seventh dean on June 1. A native of Texas, Dean-elect Travis was dean of the Anglican School of Theology in Dallas from 1987 to 1991. Dean-elect Travis comes to the seminary from Trinity Episcopal Church in The Woodlands, Texas, where he has been rector since 2001.

Minority high schoolers invited to Sewanee this summer
Minority high school juniors interested in experiencing a taste of college life and advancing themselves in science and math are invited to apply to the Summer 2007 Bridge Program at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn. From June 17 to July 7, this three-week residential program will give 20 rising high school seniors from diverse backgrounds an introduction to college-level courses. Their $2,500 scholarship covers tuition, room, and board. Interested students should immediately contact Mrs. Michaels for more information or an application packet by calling 931.598.1997 or emailing rhille@sewanee.edu. Students also can download application materials from the program web site: www.sewanee.edu/BridgeProgram.

Sewanee for clergy
The Doctor of Ministry Program of the University of the South begins its thirty-third year this summer. It is one of the few in the U.S. which operates only during the summer months, allowing clergy to participate without a major interruption in their parish responsibilities. The D.Min. program consists of 30 semester hours. Students are required to complete a major project, which is a study of some dimension of one's ministry or the ministry of the church. The dates for the Advanced Degree summer courses are June 20 - July 11. Inquiries should be addressed to Don S. Armentrout, Advanced Degrees Program, School of Theology, 335 Tennessee Avenue, Sewanee, TN 37383-0001. Telephone 800-722-1974. The email address (advdeg@sewanee.edu) and the web site: http://theology.sewanee.edu

Morning Prayer in Your Palm
A new software product from Church Publishing Inc. helps busy people keep up with personal devotions -- even when they're on the move. "eCP: electronic Common Prayer" offers users of PalmOS mobile devices a downloadable, interactive, calendar-based tool that highlights the designated liturgical celebration of the day and provides links to the full text of the appointed Daily Office readings and the Eucharistic lectionary.
eCP also features all daily Office texts -- Morning Prayer, Noonday Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Compline -- all canticles, psalms, collects, proper prefaces, prayers, and frequently used services from the Book of Common Prayer, including Baptism, Holy Eucharist Rite I and II, the Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage, Ministration at the Time of Death, Burial of the Dead, and the services of Holy Week.
eCP: electronic Common Prayer is available as a downloadable application for $29.95 on Church Publishing's website. http://www.churchpublishing.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=product&ProductID=444

News from our churches

God Among Them All
What do the local Methodist pastor, Greek Orthodox priest, and Mormon pastor in the Calallen area of Corpus Christi have in common? They are all guest presenters for the "God Among Us" series at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church this fall. The Rev. Jeff Hammond, vicar of St. Andrew's, has invited pastors or worship leaders from ten different faith traditions to lead the Wednesday evening study series.

"This got started when I was driving around the Calallen area, passing the local mosque or synagogue or Seventh Day Adventist worship center, and saying to myself, as we all do, 'I wonder what they do in there'," says Hammond. The cast includes not only leaders from other Christian denominations, but also someone from the Hindu and Jewish faiths.

On the first of the 12 Wednesdays the group is meeting, Hammond led participants in two "Minding our Ecumenical Manners" sessions. "I told them," says Hammond, "that we need to focus on our similarities, not our differences, and that we aren't going to 'catch something bad' from listening to how others perceive God."

Hammond also had the participants write down their own core values and what they perceive the core values of the Episcopal Church to be. "Often, when listening to one of our guests, someone will say 'I wish I had thought of that as one of my core values'," says Hammond.

What the group has learned, says Hammond, is that everyone is looking for the light in the darkness, something bigger than themselves, and that different faiths have come to different understandings about who that is.

In one session, Hammond showed the group a clip from a movie about Mahatma Ghandi. In it, Ghandi, a Hindu, undertakes an action that is definitely Christ-like. "Sometimes we need to have someone from another faith show us what ours should mean to us," commented Hammond.

Building in Boerne
Bishop David Reed joined Rector David Read at St. Helena's, Boerne, on Sunday, Dec 3, to dedicate the church's new multi-purpose building. Construction was started on the $2.48 million building in May 2005. Look for a full story in the next issue of The Church News.

World Mission

Four churches of the diocese - St. Thomas, St. David's, and Reconciliation in San Antonio, and Church of the Good Shepherd in Corpus Christi - will spend the week after Christmas in New Orleans working on Katrina clean-up. About 50 people on the team will work at Episcopal Free Church of the Annunciation (so-named because it was the first Episcopal Church in New Orleans to cease renting for pews). The New Orleans church members have been so involved in cleaning up their neighborhood that they have had no time to work on their own church, which took on two to five feet of water during the 2005 storm. The Lillibridge family are among the team members.

On November 29, Cody and Cassie Fuller left San Antonio for Bangkok, Thailand, with a group from "Unlimited Potential, Inc." The group's motto is "Serving Christ through baseball." Cody is a professional baseball player, and Cassie is the daughter of Paul and Becky Hulin of St. Thomas, San Antonio. Cassie, Cody, and the members of the group will speak in schools and churches in Thailand and conduct baseball clinics as a way of showing the love of Jesus to the people they will meet. They return on December 10.

John Carter and Patricia Perea will lead an evangelism team of 18 on a mission trip to the Danli/Nueva Esperanza area of Honduras, January 18-25, 2007. Team members are from the churches in Canyon Lake, New Braunfels, San Marcos, and Seguin. The church in Nueva Esperanza is currently using plastic champagne glasses and plastic pitchers for their Eucharist services. The team hopes to bring with them, and is looking for donations of, a chalice, paten, cruet, bowl, veil, pall, burse, corporal, and purificators (they need not be all of one set). If you have any of these items to give, contact Betty Chumney at the Bishop Jones Center, chumneyb@aol.com or 210/888 824-5387.

The Water Well Ministry team is currently working on two drilling rigs, getting them ready to go to Honduras and Mexico where future teams will dig for potable water.
If you can help on the rigs, or are interested in the Water Well Ministry, contact Curt Mowen at CCMowen@satx.rr.com.
The rig work takes place at Don Lee's ranch in Bandera; work dates this month are December 2, 9, and 16.

People